The Steal Call
The Steal Call is one of my favorite plays
The steal-call - an invention of such devious brilliance that I fear
your heads will explode at my sheer genius!
I see blank looks. I shall explain.
In many games, some players are familiar with the steal-raise and will
defend their blinds in response to an open-raise from late position,
especially if they notice you're a reasonable player. So, a growing
number of players (well me), have begun using the steal-call.
As its name suggests, this is an open-limp with the intention of
stealing the pot. Madness! I hear you cry. But it works. Some
advantages.
1) Because a number of low limit players are tricky, and fancy
themselves the next Chris Monkeymaker (an honest typo, but amusing
enough to leave in), they often figure that a raise is a sign of
weakness, and that just limping with a monster is what good players do.
This means you get credit for trying to suck them in with a good hand.
2) Calling doesn't guarantee that you're going bet the flop. This means
that your opponent will feel less able to check-raise you if he flops
something good. But, because you volunteered for this pot and he didn't,
the BB can't feel too confident about trying to move you off the pot
(you can even repeat the process on the flop, and save the steal raise
for the turn, if he does bet out).
3) Calling disguises your hand. This means that you create doubt in your
opponents mind - doubt that often leads to folding in a passive game. A
raise suggests a good hand to straight forward players, so Kings and
Aces can serve as scare cards for you. Now I know I said that some low
limit players are tricky, but many are not. So betting the flop after a
steal-call can lead to a fold even if the flop wouldn't have helped a
hand they think you would have raised with.
4) The steal-call often gets a little more money into the pot. A raise
will often only win the blinds. A call may win an extra 1/4 bet by
luring the SB in with trash, or an extra 1/2 bet if someone plays on the
flop.
5) The steal-call can be cheaper, because if the BB does have a hand,
you can get away for only 1 Small Bet, not the 2 that a raise would
cost. Of course this relies on you knowing if the Big Blind might make
plays or not.
So, the steal-call is really a delaying tactic. The intention is to win
the pot on a later street with a steal-raise (or a legit-raise if you
hit). It's not an excuse for getting loose. Your plan is not fit or
fold, it's flop and bet. The timing of the bet is up to you - I like
betting quickly on straight-forward flops, but delaying a little on
dangerous looking ones, like I want to exploit it, or have something not
quite as good as the obvious hand (trips or a flush usually), but still
worth playing. Sure, it's not a perfect tactic. Like all poker ideas, it
is useful in certain situations, for certain reasons, and becomes less
useful the more you use it.
It is useful against passive, straight-forward, low-limit players who
have their heads screwed on enough to know that some people try to be
tricky. It's a bit of variation in your play and is cheaper than raising
(the temptation to check is often too much, while a re-raise has macho
appeal.
Most of all though, it's something I invented and I am a poker legend
(sure, I won that title by beating Jesse in a "friendly" heads-up game,
but I'm going to milk it).
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